Back in the days when I was very much a newbie mom, before C had taken her first steps or uttered her first words, before we knew she had asthma and I’d become an expert in all things cough related, I made the funniest gaff of my parenting career.

It’s a little sad that I peaked so early, but when you go big, it’s hard to top yourself later when you set the bar so high.

My little baby, who looked so small in her big crib, had a cough. And as we all know, you can’t give cough syrup to babies. So, to avoid standing in the shower steam with her all night, I did the next best thing.

I bought her a humidifier for her room.

Well, first I went to the drugstore and stared at the humidifiers in utter consternation.

Do you know how many kinds there are? Do you know how unhelpful drugstore clerks can be?

Hot air, cold air? Fine mist? With Vapo action?

What did I know?

The hot steam one caught my eye, and, assuming that since the shower steam was good, hot steam had to be good too, I snagged it. Plus, it was all serious looking, unlike all the cute animal ones on the shelf next to it, which looked like they clearly were just for show.

I brought the thing home and low and behold, the baby slept and didn’t cough.

The next day I patted myself on the back heartily and congratulated myself on navigating another tricky parenting moment expertly. (I told you I was a newb.)

That night I plugged the humidifier in again and headed to my room for another night of great sleep.

In the wee hours of the morning the baby screamed. Not a hurt scream, an angry scream. A really, really pissed off baby scream. By the time I got to her room she was back asleep. I shrugged it off and went back to bed.

She screamed again.

I hurried back, wondering what could possibly be wrong. Once again, she was sleeping like an angel.

And then, as I watched her sleep sweetly, breathing in the healing warm steam, I felt it.

SPLAT.

A big, fat, freezing cold drop of water. On my face. That almost made me scream.

I looked up at the ceiling and saw, hundreds of sister drops of water, pearling and gently reflecting the hallway light, just waiting to rain down on my unsuspecting innocent baby.

My hot steam humidifier had turned her room into a rainforest.

She slept in our bed that night and, after cleaning off the ceiling, the next day I returned the humidifier. This time I read the reviews online and got the cutest little frog Crane humidifier. Cool mist. Guaranteed to not turn the nursery into a tropical land.

And now, when I’m at Target or the drugstore and I see a young mom looking at all the options with that confused look on their face, I steer her to the Crane humidifiers. It’s my way of atoning for my first blooper.

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Crane is one of the awesome All About the Bump Month sponsors and if you’d like to get one of these magic humidifiers for yourself read on!

• Books from Workman Publishing including Bring Back Beatrice ($10.95) and What to Expect the Second Year ($15.95)
• A Baby Hug Blanket ($64) from Silly Monkey Baby
• 3 sets of socks ($30) from See Kai Run
• lillebaby Yucky Stuff Bag ($10) from Scandinavian Child
• Ritmo Prenatal Sound System ($129.99)
• A set of Rhoost products including edge ($14.99) table corner protectors and sling ($9.99) cabinet closures
• Putumayo Kids CD ($14.98) of music from around the world
• A Pure Belly gift card with a value of $59
• Single set of Pump-a-Pair hands free breast pumping support ($12.95)
• Silky Liquid Powder ($22) from MD Moms
• LeapFrog’s My Pal Scout ($21.99)
• Joovy Hook ($69.99)
• Hot Mama Gown ($89)
• Apothederm Stretch Mark Cream ($89.95)
• A T-shirt or tank from For Two Fitness ($39.99)
• Focus Films’ BABIES DVD ($19.98)
• Episencial Sunblock Kit ($14.99)
• Your choice between 1 of 4 Britax products to be determined
• DiaperBuds Multipack ($5.99)
• Crane humidifier ($45.99)
• Booginhead SplatMat ($19.99) and one of the following: SippiGrip ($7.50), PaciGrip ($5), or PaciPouch ($8)
• A collection of products from BabyCenter including a diaper bag, BabyCenter Pregnancy: From Preconception to Birth ($19.95) and BabyCenter Baby: The All-Important First Year ($19.95)
• Adora Calcium chocolate calcium supplements ($7.50/bag)

• Tweet this daily and leave the link to your Tweet in your comment: Win the #BumpMonth basket with $1200+ in products perfect for new moms given away by @kikarose!  Enter here: http://bit.ly/lUCyNl

• Alison Ray from Sassy Moms in the City @sassymomchicago

• Andrea Fellman from Savvy Sassy Moms @savvysassymoms

• Grace Duffy from Formerly Gracie @graceduffy

• Leticia Barr from Tech Savvy Mama @techsavvymama
• Jessica Rosenberg from It’s My Life @kikarose

• Julie Meyers Pron from Just Precious @justprecious

• Kelly Whalen from The Centsible Life @centsiblelife

• Laurie Cooper from Guessing all the Way @clueless_mama
• Whitney Wingerd from Mommies with Style @WhitneyMWS